Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

The 'Diva Whisperer' – Carlo Ancelotti has largely built his success on the relationships he fosters with his players. Cristiano Ronaldo labeled the atmosphere under the Italian at Real Madrid as 'spectacular' and spoke out in his desire to keep the coach at the club.

Hide Caption

1 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Midfield Maestro – Ancelotti made his debut at Parma in 1976 before joining Roma in 1979. But it was at Milan, whom he signed for in 1987, that he had his greatest successes, winning Serie A twice and being part of the last team to win back-to-back titles in the European Cup (now the Champions League).

Hide Caption

2 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Baby Steps – Ancelotti began his managerial career with Reggiana in 1995, a year after he worked as assistant coach for Italy as it reached the 1994 World Cup final. After just a year at Reggiana, whom he led to promotion from Serie B, he led Parma for two years (finishing Serie A runners-up in his first season) before then guiding Juventus between 1999 and 2001.

Hide Caption

3 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Start of an Era – Ancelotti acknowledges the crowd as he walks out for his first match as AC Milan manager in 2001, the first of his 423 games in charge of the club.

Hide Caption

4 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Flying High – Ancelotti won a host of trophies with Milan during his eight-year spell but only one domestic championship. Players celebrated the 2004 Serie A title by lifting up the coach following a narrow win over Roma, the club Ancelotti had played for with such distinction for many years.

Hide Caption

5 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Revenge is Sweet – Ancelotti will largely be remembered at Milan for the two Champions League titles he brought the club -- in 2003 and 2007. Here, he celebrates the latter success, as Milan beat Liverpool in Athens to gain revenge for the dramatic 2005 final against the same opponents.

Hide Caption

6 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Chelsea Blues – After leaving Milan, Ancelotti spent two years in charge of English premier league club, Chelsea. Despite winning the league and cup double in his first season, the Italian was sacked by owner Roman Abramovich on the final day of the 2010-11 season. His dismissal emanated from his failure to progress in the Champions League, with the quarterfinal defeat by Manchester United eliciting a rare display of anger from the usually calm coach.

Hide Caption

7 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Sheikh, Rattle and Roll – Six months later, Ancelotti was in charge of French side Paris Saint-Germain. The Italian believed he was going to be involved for a long period with a club built on Qatari wealth but claimed in his autobiography that he was let down by former Brazil international Leonardo, then PSG's sporting director, prompting Ancelotti to walk away from the club in May 2013.

Hide Caption

8 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

The Real deal – Another two-year spell soon followed, this time at Real Madrid. After Jose Mourinho had alienated many of the players during his fractious reign, Ancelotti reanimated the team through the strong relationships he formed with the players.

Hide Caption

9 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Delivering 'La Decima' – Like all Real coaches, Ancelotti had been brought in to deliver success in the Champions League -- but his target was 'La Decima', the much sought-after tenth success in the competition. Real had failed to win the title for over a decade when Ancelotti was appointed. But in his first season, the Italian delivered the title with defeat of Atletico Madrid -- prompting this reaction at the final whistle from the Italian.

Hide Caption

10 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Bavarian welcome – After his dismissal in only his second year at Real, Ancelotti took a break from football spending a year in Canada with wife Mariann, who he marred in 2014. Here, the pair inspect the traditional Bavarian lederhosen which they received in July as the Italian started work in his latest role at the serial German champion, Bayern Munich.

Hide Caption

11 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

First silverware – Ancelotti has already won a trophy in Germany, winning the season-opening DFL Supercup when beat Borussia Dortmund on 14 August.

Hide Caption

12 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Family Affair – But Ancelotti's decision to appoint son Davide to his coaching staff has been criticized as nepotism in many quarters. Sitting on the bench behind them is Paul Clement, who Ancelotti has regularly worked with since first meeting the Englishman at Chelsea.

Hide Caption

13 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Changing Tack – Ancelotti's immediate challenge at Bayern is to tweak the possesion-based style he has inherited from Guardiola, who won three championships and two cups during his 2013-2016 spell in charge. "(Possession) is not my personal obsession," Ancelotti has said, while being wary of applying any changes gradually. "I must be careful not to destabilize a winning structure."

Hide Caption

14 of 15

Photos:Carlo Ancelotti: The 'Diva Whisperer'

Mind of its Own – In addition to club owners, fans and the media, there is another area of life that Ancelotti professes to have no control over. His eyebrow has become famous for its rise and falls. "Really, I don't understand. It's an instinct. I am not able to control my eyebrow," he laughs.

Hide Caption

15 of 15

Story highlights

New Bundesliga season starts Friday

Ancelotti's new club Bayern wins 6-0

Italian coach replacing Guardiola

Renowned for his calm approach

(CNN)You have to be careful of the quiet ones.

If that old adage fits anyone, it's surely Carlo Ancelotti.

He has one of the most impressive CVs in football -- one of just seven men to have won the Champions League as both player and coach, the Italian is also one of only two coaches to have won the European crown on three separate occasions.

The 57-year-old has not achieved this by bawling and screaming, fostering a siege mentality or through mendacious mind games, but with a calm, hands-in-pockets cool.

Some have tried to change him, such as Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, but Ancelotti wasn't for turning.

His traits were instilled, he says, from his childhood growing up in a small village in Emilia-Romagna, in the north of Italy.

"I try to be quiet in my relationships with people," he explains. "I grew up like this because I lived in a very quiet and very calm family.

"I had a father who was very quiet, so I grew my character from the beginning."

Ancelotti has used his lifetime of training to good effect during a managerial career which -- starting in the 1990s -- has taken him to Italian clubs Reggiana, Parma, Juventus and Milan, English team Chelsea, France's Paris Saint-Germain and Spanish heavyweight Real Madrid.

Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Filippo Inzaghi and supposed hard man Gennaro Gattuso were in tears, David Beckham recalled, when Ancelotti left Milan in 2009, after an eight-year spell that had resulted in league, cup, Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup successes.

"He genuinely cares, and he takes the time to care," former England captain John Terry said. "That's what makes him the very best."

The Chelsea stalwart's relationship with Mourinho is widely believed to have been his closest bond with a coach -- but that's apparently not so.

"He is, for me, the ultimate," the veteran defender said of Ancelotti.

Occasionally labeled the "Diva Whisperer," Ancelotti insists that working with top stars is easy because of their desire to be the best -- citing three-time world footballer of the year Ronaldo as an example.

"When we got back at 3 in the morning from away trips, instead of going to bed he would go to the ice bath, so this means he is really professional," the former Italy international says of the club's record scorer.

"Managing top talent is easy because most of them are really serious so it's not difficult -- really not."

JUST WATCHED

Carlo Ancelotti: Mourinho 'really good' for Man Utd

MUST WATCH

Carlo Ancelotti: Mourinho 'really good' for Man Utd00:50

He is in thrall to the lead character in mobster movie "The Godfather" (whose keeping-it-in-the-family attitude might explain why Ancelotti appointed son Davide to be Bayern's assistant coach this week).

"When you watch Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather,' do you see a weak, quiet man or do you see a calm, powerful man in charge of his situation?" he asked in his autobiography.

It's a telling comment which explains much of Ancelotti's approach, even if the violence is reassuringly absent.

His main football influence was part of one of the sport's most heralded triumvirates -- Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm -- the Swedish forwards popularly known at Milan as "Gre-No-Li."

Liedholm would later manage Milan three times, but he made his biggest impression on Ancelotti when he coached Roma, where the midfielder played between 1979-1987.

Liedholm, who Ancelotti describes as -- surprise, surprise -- "quiet but strong," was powerful, respected, flexible (like his protégé) and liked to both fine-tune players and give them responsibility.

After Champions League successes with Milan in 2003 and 2007, and Real Madrid (the all-important "decima") in 2014, Bayern -- whose last European triumph came in 2013 -- is hoping to tap into some of the Ancelotti magic.

"Carlo Ancelotti has enjoyed success everywhere as a coach and has won the Champions League three times," Bayern's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the club website upon the Italian's appointment in December to replace Pep Guardiola, now at Manchester City.

"Carlo is a calm, balanced expert, who knows how to deal with stars and favors a multifaceted style of play -- we were looking for this, and have found it."

After working under such challenging owners as Abramovich (who once chastised Ancelotti after a 6-0 win), Florentino Perez and Silvio Berlusconi, the Bayern boss is likely to relish working at a club that often appoints former top-level players, including Rummenigge, to management roles.

And Bayern will surely benefit from the extended break Ancelotti recently afforded himself with his Canadian second wife Mariann, who he married in 2014.

"I think it was really good after 20 years to have one year off," he said. "I enjoyed beautiful places like Canada but now I am ready to start."